Gorgon
Gorgons are a kin of people in Arcaitia. Females have relatively skin-colored snake-like prehensile tentacles on their heads, which appear to be snakes with mouths but no eyes. Male gorgons lack the snake tentacles, instead having an overall more snake-like head shape, more visible scales on their heads, and a minimal to prominant wing-like hood. Both sexes frequently have pronounced canines and possess the ability to petrify creatures when they meet their gaze. It is an encasing petrification. Gorgons have slightly scaly skin of greenish hues. They also possess a defense mechanism that gave them the reputation of being ugly and horrific: they are able to open flaps on their face, expanding it to look larger and more menacing, much like the barring of teeth. They can interbreed with saurians (most compatable with serpentines like naga), thurses, harpies, and humans. They are a fae compatable race. Most remain quite primitive and do not form large social groups or they live solitarily in the shadow of the societies that fear them. They have a matriarchal social structure with a high ratio of females because males often engaging in long, belaboring fights for mates and females regularly consume male gorgons after mating. When cross-breeding they can attempt to eat their mate, but there is less craving to and often they are unsuccessful as the other is prepared given the reputation of their kin. Gorgons live life spans at a maximum the averge of humans. They live in caves and ruins, often sunning on rocks much like reptiles. They favor island rocks as well and enjoy mimicking sirens but then petrifying and sinking the victims before they ever get there. They are carnivores eating anything they can find and needing little to sustain their sedentary and brooding lifestyle. All gorgons have circulatory systems that yield opposite properties in blood from either side of their body. Blood taken from the right side of a gorgon can bring the dead back to life. It is the power of this blood that was magnified by wicked tutelars in the two invicible gorgon sisters. Blood taken from the left side of a gorgon is a poison that kills immediately upon drinking. It is the power of this blood that was magnified in the youngest sister and projected through her visage. Blood of either state, from either sex, will spawn more eyeless snake tentacles that grow slowly out of it. The free snake tentacles flail and blindly grope around for anything to bite. Were they to find enough, they may be able to sustain themselves detached from a gorgon. Fresh snake tentacles, with their own spawning blood or the blood of another gorgon, can be attached anywhere to the bodies of gorgons of either sex and coaxed to grow to sizes greater than the female's hair tentacles. Snakes are prominent in gorgon cultures. They are seen as sources of power and the true embodiment and fulfillment of gorgon femininity and the essence of the kin. Gorgons often fetishize serpentine and saurian kins, seeing them as exotic yet connected with them on a deep level. When they wear humic clothing, many gorgons are accustomed to gird themselves with an enchanted belt of two intertwined artifice snakes. The Three Sisters In Arcatia there is an island of three sister gorgons, two of which have the power of being unkillably immortal (invincible), while the third sister, the youngest, is mortal but has the power of unrestrainable, thorough petrification—any one who looks at her face would be turned to stone through and through. It is said the three sisters were normal gorgons that got entangled with the tutelars and merlords of that country and were transformed into their horrible state. In addition to their invincibility, the two older sisters' hands were turned to brass. The youngest's face was also made horribly grotesque to convey her power of terrible visage. The eldest has red snake tentacles and the middle has a terrible wail. The youngest was beheaded and her face was stretched out over a shield, imbuing it with a repelling and generally protective power, one that can poison men with fear that stops them in their tracks. The shield repels people and the finer sort of beasts with its power, but it does not repulse spirits. See Also Demogorgons/Demigorgons get much of their ferocity from having gorgon blood as one component of their abomination. Gorgons have disturbing reactions with chimeras. Sources Gorgon on Wikipedia Medusa on Wikipedia Category:Arcaitia Category:Kins